Category: Organized Travel

A Routine’s Last Steps Are The Most Important

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Recently, a client asked me how I schedule things. And since that means different things to different people, I delved a little deeper and asked a few more questions while we worked.

We were working through a pile of The Smalls in her home office. Do you know The Smalls? Imagine the things that come out of your pocket, like a pocket full of change or receipts or sunglasses or cough drops. It’s the bowl of weird things that ends up on our dresser or by the bathroom sink or in a heap on the table by the door. Safety pins, charging cords, random pens from the bank, tags from a sweater. The odd little small stuff that can drive us crazy. The Smalls.

As we were working through The Smalls, what she really wanted to know about was How to Create Routines. Routines in general, but in this case, a routine for maintenance, for example, better managing and eliminating The Smalls.

So, she was asking how to create routines? And specifically, the Maintenance Part of routines.

I love this question, we should all ask this question. And this particular client asked the question that day, but I have worked with dozens of clients answering the same question for themselves.

And as a refresher – What are routines? Using a morning routine as an example, a routine is a short list of 5-7 tasks that we must complete every morning (or afternoon or evening or when we go to a certain place or do certain things) to survive (sleep, eat, bathe, drink water) and also maintain a basic level of functionality in our life (start laundry, pay bills, buy groceries, exercise).

How do I know she was asking about maintenance? I see this client once a month. When I arrive in the morning, she is always awake, showered and dressed. The cat and dogs have been fed, dogs have been out, and she usually has some laundry started. There are many parts of her routine that are solid. I know she has mastered survival tasks in her routine. If this sounds familiar, I would guess you, also, have conquered survival, the basics, the essentials. So what is missing?

For this client, she was asking about a routine to take care of The Smalls and other clutter in her house before it got to the troublesome level.

Next level, then, is getting good at our routine maintenance tasks. After survival tasks are complete, what are those maintenance tasks we must complete every day, again, to maintain a basic level of functionality in our life?

Unfortunately, since maintenance is often less urgent than survival, we can sometimes let those tasks slide in the rush of our day to day. The danger, of course, is that since routine tasks are tasks we must complete over and over again, we can get lax in the execution and completion of them. And as we relax our standards, we stop maintaining our maintenance. The switch, then, the point is, we need to understand the vital importance of “done” or “complete” in our routine maintenance tasks, and commit to “done” and “complete”.

We need to define for ourselves what done is, what done looks like.

I worked with an adult client many years ago who said that no one had ever explained to him what “clean your room” or “organize your desk” meant, even as a child. And if that is not something that you are used to, or, like this fellow, if it doesn’t come naturally for you, or if that is not the way your brain works, then being told to clean your room or organize your stuff is meaningless.

When my sons were little, instead of just saying go clean your room or go organize your dresser, I talked with them about what steps to actually take. When they were really little, pre-readers, I made a sign with pictures, like a picture of a bed to remind them to tidy up their bed, a picture of a laundry basket to remind them to put their dirty clothes in the hamper, a picture of a hanger to put their clean laundry away, put their books away, make sure the floor was relatively clear before they went to sleep (because who wants to step on a Lego in the dark, am I right?!). When it was clean, we would stand in the doorway and I asked them to take a mental picture of what “done” looked like, so they could get back to “done” on their own some day.

First, we need to know what “done” and “complete” look like and entail.

Another example: We get up and get ready for our day. Great. If we turn around, though, what does our home look like behind us? You know Pigpen from Peanuts, who always had the little cloud of dust behind him? What does it look like behind us? We got up, but did we take 30 seconds and make the bed? We took a shower, but did we take 11 seconds to hang up our towel or put it in the hamper?

What does the bathroom look like when we’re done? “Ready to leave” is one thing, and it is all about us as a body, and it’s very important, but is your space ready for you to leave? Truly “done” or “complete” requires the extra 30 seconds that we spend in the bathroom before we finish in there in the morning, where we hang up our towel and we straighten the shower curtain and we wipe the fingerprints and the dirt or anything off the sink, and we have put all of our stuff away that we use every day. Those last few steps are what maintains that minimal functionality in our spaces.

Because we’re going to have to do it all over again tomorrow.

Those last steps are also part of the routine tasks. We have routines around times and events to make them run more smoothly, and to set ourselves up to succeed next time, too. And those last steps are vital to that end.

In my presentations, I talk about my routine around taking my supplements every morning. I mention that I used to forget to take my supplements, but I anchored the supplement habit to my morning coffee habit and now I always remember to take my supplements. Adding a few details here, I take a few supplements that need to be on an empty stomach, and as I start my coffee, I take those right away. Then I leave the other batch, the later with food batch, on the counter so seeing them will help remind me to take them. Later, when I am headed out the door for my day, a glance at the counter while I grab my second cup of coffee will remind me to take the rest if I haven’t already. “Done” and “complete” look like a clear counter. Maintaining the maintenance, and also leaving a clean slate for the rest of my day. Because I am going to have to do it all over again tomorrow.

Another global example: Bill-paying. Your bills are paid – awesome! Hopefully, you have a routine around paying bills on time, a date in the calendar to take care of those! Again, awesome! And yes, that is an achievement we can celebrate! And… did we file the papers that were left after the bills were paid? Or empty the overflowing paper recycling bin in the office, or run the handful of papers that need shredded through the shredder? Or look ahead at when we are set to pay bills again and put that on the calendar, too? These final steps of the routine task of Paying Bills often get overlooked, and then their neglect adds to our mess or disorganization going forward.

Other places we can put this idea into practice:

Managing The Smalls by identifying them as smalls and setting our space up for maintenance. Add a garbage can nearby to toss everything you can, keep a jar there for loose change or an envelope for receipts. And take the 5 seconds to toss the trash and file the receipts.

Your work space at the end of the day? Set a timer for the last 5 minutes of your work day and set yourself up to succeed tomorrow. Done looks like cleared and waiting for us and tomorrow’s work.

After traveling, unpack completely and put the suitcase away. AWAY. Complete.

Making dinner and eating dinner, sure, but also cleaning up after dinner. Because tomorrow morning, we’re going to need to start the cycle again and a clean kitchen is a better place to start our day.

I worked with a different client the other day, and the timer on her phone went off when we still had 15 minutes of our appointment left. Because … she is wise and she knows we need to put stuff away. We made a few last labels with my label maker, put the bins of clothes in the closet, took out the trash, loaded the bags of donation into the back of my car, talked about what her next steps are to continue to making progress. We do the work, and then we have our routine around maintaining maintenance. Taking those last few moments to set ourselves up to succeed next time.

Consider your routines this week, and determine what Done and Complete look like for you, and then commit to maintaining the maintenance and setting ourselves up to succeed next time!

Get Good At Transitions: Intros & Outros

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I am going to start this article with the end in mind.

The last line is: “Get good at transitions with clear and consistent communications, a plan and focus, respect to timelines and occasional flexibility as needed.” And you will soon see why.

In addition to being an organizational coach and certified professional organizer, I am a liturgical musician. I have the supreme honor of enhancing worship with and for my community. In addition to enhancing worship, I also have the supreme honor of supporting my community in times of transitions, experiencing joys and sorrows at weddings, funerals, sacraments and holy days.

Recently, I had the true joy and privilege to sing at a wedding. The bride and groom were happy, the families were happy, the weather was perfect, there was a lovely feeling of celebration in the church. It was great. The benefit to planning for and singing for a wedding, as opposed to other sorts of liturgy, is that we have a lot of time to plan. I sat down with the bride and groom 7 months ago to review the order of the ceremony and fill in items like the readings. We also reviewed where in the ceremony there are opportunities for music, either instrumental or vocal or both, and discussed if they or their family members have specific requests and favorites. Since then, we texted, emailed and spoke, checking in again with the couple, their families and the deacon performing the ceremony.

Communication happened, everything was smooth sailing. The few hiccups that did occur were quickly managed.

Then it was the Saturday morning of the 2:30 pm Wedding. And everything was still fine, and continued to be – there is no cliff hanger here. I am not leading up to some big blow up. Everything was still sailing smoothly. But what occurred to me that day was, with months of planning for a 45 minute ceremony, that we needed to get VERY CLEAR on the 10 minutes before the ceremony began.

All the planning, all the rehearsing – and oh yes, I did rehearse – if my neighbors weren’t also singing the songs in their sleep after listening to me rehearse for the 2 weeks prior, I would be surprised. All the planning and all the rehearsing were for the ceremony itself, and we were super prepared. But success is often measured for such things as the ceremony, of course, but also how smoothly it begins and also ends.

It comes down to a few minutes, and then the moment. And… But?… And… we were ready. We had a clearly defined goal, laser focus on the goal, clear and consistent communications around the goal, and everyone did their part to prepare for the event. We were ready, AND I needed to nail those 10 minute leading up to the moment the bridal party stepped off.

It’s funny, because your perspective absolutely changes from six months out, reviewing the time line and checklists, hiring an accompanist, purchasing the sheet music, rehearsing, etc. Down to those last 600 seconds.

Shall we start playing the three minute and 47 second song at 2:24 as a prelude? But we have to make sure that the bride can hear it, because that was the one request she made to me via text the morning of the wedding. Or, as I thought about my chat that afternoon half an hour before the wedding with my friend, the mother of the bride, and how she mentioned that the only song that was specifically her choice was the song we were playing as the Mothers are seated. I had considered cutting it short (it also is 4 minutes), but she loves it, it was her only request, so guess what – yes, we played the entire song.

So, we had a goal and deadline and parameters, but the whole point of the day was to love and support the bride and groom and their families, so we made it all happen in that very short amount of time. We nailed that transition so the rest of the event could flow smoothly.

Similar thought process – soon after, my choir and I were warming up to sing at Mass and for whatever reason our Sunday morning rehearsal started late. We usually try to run through every song once in that Sunday morning rehearsal, but that day, we didn’t have as much time as we usually do. And when that happens, we focus on rehearsing the intros and outros. I don’t actually know if outro is a word, but if you talk to a musician, they know what intros and outros are. An intro is, for example, the first four measures of a song before the vocals begin. And the outro is how you plan to end the song – you vocally end with a whole note, then the instruments do another couple of measures, for example.

We know how the songs go, we aren’t worried about the middle. We just need to know we will start and end the same. Clear communications, a goal and focus, a clear plan. We need those intros and outros to be clean. If there is going to be a mistake, it is likely at those transition points and not in the middle of a verse. If we start messy, sometimes it throws us off and we miss other things in the song. And no one wants to finish rough because often, no matter how amazing the song was, people are going to remember the last 10 seconds and how you finished.

We focus on transitions, whether it is the few minutes before or after an event, or the first or last few seconds of a song, because those matter. Those are the most likely places to stumble, so we practice those even more than the rest.

This is not a music lesson, though it may sound like one. It’s a life lesson, with musical examples because I am me. Let’s look at how to apply solid intros and outros to life.

Our work or school days are predictable, for the most part. We know how to do our work and we know how to go to school. Our commute to and from work or school is relatively predictable, though sometimes we hit traffic or some other complication.

The more likely places we are to stumble in our day, the places that might stress us out or make us late, are the intros and outros, the transition for sleep to awake, from home to travel, the “leaving the house in a timely manner and well prepared” part.

Driving our car to school or work, and even doing our work isn’t where we stumble. Getting out of the house to drive, or leaving work on time to be ready for the rest of our day – that is where we stumble.

So the actual trip is no big deal, but if we don’t get our acts together, and so therefore don’t make it out the door in a timely manner and therefore we’re late for the rest of it, that is where we’re going to stumble. Right. Transitions. Transitions. Transitions are where we have the greatest opportunity and greatest incidents to stumble.

Let’s get really good at transitions.

Last week, I prepared to present at an event at a local community college. I love these events, it is great to go out and meet people! And I started my planning a few days before to make sure my transitions were solid. I made handouts ahead of time just in case my printer got cranky and I needed a Plan B. I purchased my promo materials months ago, and it’s all packed with my gear. I loaded everything into the car a day or two before, to make my day easier for the actual event. Anticipating the actual work, I had no worries about presenting or networking – those are easy. The potential transition that could slow down or mess up my day was changing out of client appointment clothes and into more snazzy presentation clothes, so I packed that bag ahead of time as well. And I knew how long the commute from my client appointment to the event should be, and allowing some cushion, I knew my hard stop time to get me where I needed to go.

Get good at transitions. We want to make sure we are as prepared as possible for those transitions. I’m never worried about my client appointments, but sometimes I’m worried about the commute, getting there, ending on time to get to my next appointment, and home again.

Let’s consider how we can practice those intros and outros even more. Keeping the analogy, when we practice intros and outros, we communicate ALOT beforehand about how we are going to start and finish, we imagine the song in our head, we set a tempo, we take a deep breath and then we begin.

“Get good at transitions with clear and consistent communications, a plan and focus, respect to timelines and occasional flexibility as needed.”

Learn New Things Then Make Them Your Own

I am a member of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, and I attended their annual conference last weekend. It was amazing, and I will share more soon.

In an activity with a fellow participant, we worked through a new time management tool that I CANNOT wait to introduce to all of you! But I digress.

The tool walks us through a project, helps us identify potential roadblocks and how to deal with them, and lets us imagine our reasons for and how we will feel when we achieve our goal and / or complete the project. For the activity to learn to use the tool, we chose a goal or project to focus on, and mine was “how to ensure I worked through my conference notes this week” And my answer to my table partner was, “Because otherwise, WHY DID I BOTHER TO GO?!”

Going to the conference was not simple. The conference was in Minnesota, a beautiful state from the little bit that I got to explore when not in sessions. It was a 7 hour drive to get Bloomington, MN right next to Minneapolis-St.Paul, and the same to get back, though that was in the dark and in the rain. (My husband is a rockstar). It required money and planning and research and packing and a million other little tasks. It required that I take time off from paying clients to instead pay money. It required that I attend a conference I have never attended, that I step into rooms where I knew no-one. It required many leaps of faith, to just jump into a situation and do my best. And it was absolutely worth it.

I visited new places and saw new things. I learned so much. So much that will help me in my business, in my work with my clients and also me personally. I hugged in-person people who I had only met in virtual programs before now, I met amazing new people and made new friends.

Similarly, I presented at a conference the week before. And, I would hope for all of those attendees that they took some time to review and internalize and revel and relish what they learned at their conference and then started to put that new knowledge into practice, too.

As part of my working through the content this week from the conference, I want to write about it and then I will do it! It’s time to process what I learned, follow up with many people and incorporate what I learned into my real life. Because, again, otherwise, WHY DID I BOTHER TO GO?!

If you, too, have the opportunity to learn new things, here are some things to think about!

Be open to learning because there are always things to learn.

First, can we just appreciate how awesome it is to have the opportunity to learn new things? There is always more to learn, either expanding on things we already know or learning new topics and ideas entirely.

When we get back from learning, Unpack, and I mean physically unpack.

I have worked with dozens of clients who have bags still packed with logos on them from conferences or workshops they attended 1 and 5 and 20 years ago. In addition to the knowledge learned going no further than that bag on a shelf or under the desk, logistically speaking – what about the half-eaten granola bar or dirty tissues – ew!

Please, unpack your bag and delete or recycle the easy and the obvious. When it comes to storage, bags are almost never our friends. Liberate the stuff and the learning, bring it back to the daylight!

As an aside, when you attend a conference with other professional organizers, some of us admit to emptying the swag bag immediately, getting rid of what we don’t want and sharing it the next day with fellow participants, and clearing out the excess before we even pack to go home!

Also as an aside, at a conference for professional organizers, programs start on time and sometimes even early!

Next, and very importantly: Act on the new knowledge while it is still fresh!

One of my accountability partners asked a great question the last time we spoke. She asked if I had a plan, or what was my plan, to work through all of my notes and follow-up from conference.

I want to review my notes this week because I can easily recall exactly what I was feeling and thinking when I heard the content. I can remember what time of day it was, I can remember who was sitting at my table with me. Reviewing the content just a few days out means that as I reflect on the content, I can fill in my note with even more ideas, I can recall thoughts I had then that I might not have had time to capture at that moment, I can start to move the knowledge from short term memory into long term memory, and I can make plans for changing my behaviors around what I learned.

If I waited weeks or months or years, that reflection piece would take me nowhere fast. And I would miss the opportunity to make the knowledge my own and incorporate it into my own best practices.

Relatedly, as I review my notes, if I want to reach out to someone I spoke with, they will also be more likely to remember me now than in a few weeks or months from now.

In addition to knowledge becoming un-refreshable to us, remember that Knowledge Expires. If you have a backlog of content or binders or books from long ago professional development, please consider that Knowledge Expires. Yes, knowledge expires.

Here’s an example: Years ago, a friend said how proud they were of the medical journals on the shelf above their desk. They liked to see the journals, the journals felt like visual proof of how good a doctor this friend is. And this friend is a good doctor. AND, I reminded them that I would not want to see a 20 year old medical journal above my doctor’s desk, I would rather see recent certificates and updates and achievements. Because, in some industries, like the medical profession, some knowledge expires.

I would not want to see reference books for outdated software on my IT department’s shelf. I do not want to see educational theory books from the 1950’s on a teacher’s shelf.

Looking ahead, Make A Plan for Yourself to Learn New Things

As I reflected on presenting at a conference and then, a week later, attending a conference, I am reminded that, as I stated earlier, there is always more to learn. My suggestion to you and to myself is to come up with our own education plans.

Once we are out of the academic environment, it would be easy to stop learning. But in the first line of my content for my recent presentation, I stated that “If we aren’t growing, we’re either standing still or we’re wilting and withering”. Those are our options.

We can choose to grow, we can stand still or we can wilt and wither. Of course there are some days I am not striving and growing and reading and pursuing. But those days of rest are part of the plan, too. An educational plan guides our steps.

I don’t know what that educational plan looks like for you. I don’t know what lights you up or what you’re interested in. But maybe you know.

There’s so much information available to us these days. There has never, never in the history of the world, been so much information and so readily at our fingertips. Never before. Of course, we need to make sure we are critical thinkers and are consuming actual knowledge from trusted sources.

But there’s so much out there to learn and know about. So much. And it’s all available to us.

For me, personally, I am going to work through my notes from my conference. I am also going to review my non-fiction “reading pile”. I put that in quotations because while I call it my reading pile, it is not a pile. It is a part of a shelf full of books I own but have not read yet, and also a back log on my kindle app on my Ipad. There were books and authors mentioned at conference and I know I own some of those books but I have not read them yet. Establishing a more consistent non-fiction reading habit sounds like a positive step in that Education Plan!

At writing time, I completed some easy first steps yesterday afternoon.

  • I unpacked my conference bag, recycled any papers I won’t need again, put things away in my office that have a home.
  • I entered into my phone contacts all of the business card information from fellow attendees who shared with me.
  • I submitted for and received certificates for all the Continuing Education Unit that I earned by participating this weekend.
  • I processed my bullet journal notes from the last 4 days. I still need to prioritize the notes and action steps, but they are in Evernote so that now, when I have a few moments, I can start assigning the ideas and tasks to the appropriate list – ideas like blog topics, client follow up, etc., or schedule time to complete tasks like the errands I will run tomorrow.

On my agenda for this afternoon and tomorrow morning are to review the handouts from each of the presentations. I will reach out via email and thank the speakers for their presentations. I will subscribe to newsletter and follow on Facebook or Instagram.

I will read the articles that were recommended for further reading, I will email follow up to my fellow participants. For example, a fellow participant asked a question during one session regarding working with a client in a hoarding situation who is struggling emotionally, and I offered to share information regarding Mental Health First Aid Training.

I will continue to share out the new knowledge gained in the coming months, as I internalize it and make it my own!

More about Learning new things:

In October, I will begin hosting webinars on topics such as quarterly planning, menu planning, clearing clutter (that was a specific ask, Sandy I heard you!). Some will be free, and some will have a small fee attached. I look forward to you and I learning more together!

How To Arrive On Time

August is a great time to recommit (or finally commit?) to getting places on-time! I have written often on this topic, so if you want to hear more, head over to my blog and search for time management strategies, or check out my past episodes.

Over the summer, a community member asked me to write about how to get places on time.

And I recall a client and friend asking me very early on in our working relationship very earnestly “How Do You Get Places On Time?” And then she looked at me and said “No, really – HOW do YOU get places on time?” She shifted it from asking for broad global tips for time management down to how did I, Colleen, actually get to her house on time that morning. She and I were both working moms with small children at the time and she wanted specifics! So, we worked on that together!

Relatedly, we were having a conversation about this at a family event recently, about how different family members or even sides of a family can have much different views on what is “on time”. And we discussed which family members will arrive early (yes, I have those family members) and which family members we need to tell that the party starts half an hour earlier than it does, so the rest of us can eat before the food gets cold! (I have those family members, too.)

Let’s get to it!

To get us started, I will use me as a case study because then I don’t have to ask permission! Here is how we do this. For a timed event over the weekend, my husband and I confirmed with each other and checking the text from the host as to the official start time of the event, and we decided we wanted to be there as it began, so let’s say 2 pm. We looked at the rest of the agenda for the day which was pretty light because it was a Saturday. We debated running the errands we needed to take care of on our way to the event or knocking them out first thing in the morning instead. And then, knowing how long it typically takes us to get to the event location, we agreed upon the time we needed to leave by to get there when the event started (On-Time).

Let’s break that down into simple steps. And as I wrote this, I realized it could be a top 10 list! So here we go!

Tip #1: To Get Places On-Time, we first need to discuss, what is “on time”, for you?

Because here’s the thing, that is not up to me. I can’t tell you want your own policies should be. But I can tell you that if you want to get better about Getting Places On Time, these are the questions you need to ask yourself. A long ago little league coach taught my oldest son that early was on time and on time was late. That verbalized a guiding principle for me!

Tip #2: Check your notes!

We need to know the event details, like start-time, and determine what time we want to arrive. Different activities require different strategies. For example, you may want to arrive…

  • 15 Minutes early for a doctor appointment when you know there will be forms to fill out;
  • 15 minutes early, at least, or as arranged, for a speaking engagement, for example, where I am presenting, to assure the event coordinators that their speaker will be ready at the agreed upon time;
  • Fashionably late (half an hour after start-time) for a graduation open house;
  • 5 minutes early for dinner reservations;
  • Exactly on time, like me for a client appointment. Arriving too early to a client appointment where the client struggles with time management can cause the client undue anxiety, as can arriving late for the appointment and for the same reasons.
  • And very specifically, early for events we must be on time for, like flights or trains that will not wait of us!

These are examples of when we need to answer the question of “When Do I Want To Arrive?” Get in the habit of asking yourself that question.

Tip #3: Understand and determine your Leave Time

Do you leave your door and you’re on your way? Or do you leave your door, wait for the elevator, take it down 11 stories, go to the parking garage, wait in line to get out and …. THEN you’re on your way? That seems an extreme example, I know. But it highlights how different our concept of time can be! I know for myself, I have a 2-3 minute process between leaving my back door and leaving my garage. So if I want to be on time, I need to factor in those invisible 3 minutes to my total travel time. And, if there is even one more person in the Leave Time equation, either at home or at work, it is likely the invisible minutes will increase.

Tip #4: Know your usual travel time, and then add 5 minutes. Or more.

Tip #5: Use GPS

Use GPS on your phone to navigate to even your usual destinations. This may sound silly, but if getting places on time is a challenge for you, perhaps it is time to try new strategies! I use GPS on work days all the time, especially if my drive is anything over 15 minutes, because my GPS will alert me to any snags, slow downs or trouble on my route. I have a client I visit one morning a month, and due to tollway construction, my travel time to her home varies widely and occasionally doubles from trip to trip! I always check the GPS early that monthly morning, to factor in any changes in my commute. If I am just out and about, running errands and not on the clock, so to speak, then I don’t need to use my GPS.

Tip #6: Have a plan for putting gas in your car.

Again, seems simple, I know. But hear me out – have a schedule or routine around filling your tank and not just when you need it. And not in the morning. Because, no you will not remember to leave early and instead you will hop in your car to get to work or your next appointment and realize that you do not have enough gas to get you there, or there and home. So dedicate a few minutes on a weekly errand day, or pick a favorite station near your house and make a habit of checking your gauge as you drive by and make a stop if you have a quarter tank or less.

Tip # 7: Consider the time needed upon arrival.

Imagine with me – your GPS has guided you to your location with ease, and you arrive a few minutes early – way to go! And… then you realize that there is only street parking (welcome to Chicago) and you have to drive around the neighborhood for 20 minutes. Or there is a parking garage, or a line for security, or any number of invisible minutes ticking away. Remember to factor in the extra wait time when you arrive, or the additional 5 minutes of walking or waiting for the elevator, etc. to your Get Places On Time formula.

Tip #8 Use a bag.

Again, hear me out. I remember sitting in the high school drop -off line with my youngest son and we would watch the kids in the cars in front of us slowly get out of the car with a shoe – just one – in one hand, a breakfast bar in the other, and 4 or 5 other loose items like a binder or chromebook, coat, the other shoe, etc., tucked in the crook of their arm. Which of course could (and occasionally did) all fall to the ground at any moment, especially when they reached back in the car for a few more loose items. More than once, we sighed with impatience, and discussed how much smoother the process would be if the kid had a backpack and actually used it. The tip, then, is to corral loose items and put them in the bag before you arrive at your destination.

Tip #9 Get Where You’re Going and THEN Relax

There are days when I could stay in my office and send off one more email, or text one more client, or read one more article. OR… I can leave now and take care of those tasks when I have arrived at my destination. My habit is to get out the door, and then take a few minutes when I have arrived at my destination to take care of those tasks. And if my travel takes longer than expected, I can tackle those tasks another time today.

Tip #10 Have a back-up plan.

All the time. We went to the White Sox game last Monday and we took the Metra. We factored in start event details and when we were meeting our friends, and planned for the train but could also have driven if the Metra idea fell through. Public transportation, car-pools, alternate routes, Uber, etc.

Give one or all of these tips a try!

Packing Personality: Days Ahead or Last Minute?

There are many ways that people pack for trips or adventures or vacations. If you have ever traveled with at least one other person, you likely know there are options, and also that your ways are not necessarily other people’s ways.

Some folks pack weeks in advance, to make sure all the bases are covered. Some folks pack hours or even moments before they head out the door. Some of us are somewhere in between.

Some of us pack only the essentials and end up with just enough (we hope), and some of us like to pack extra because we like options.

Some of us pack meticulously with color coded packing cubes, check lists, shoe bags and a schedule per day. And for some, we’re lucky we have a matched pair of socks and a toothbrush.

Any of these ways can work for us, I am not here to judge as to which strategy you may choose to use.

Unless, of course, what you’re doing isn’t working for you.

I was chatting with a friend last week, and she shared that she never knew what she would find when she gets to her destination and opens her suitcase. She reports a major disconnect for her between the packing process and the actual traveling she does. Another friend says that the person who packs doesn’t always think of the person who is traveling (yet they are the same person!).

I personally use a blend of styles – there are some things that are always packed, or that I can set aside days before we leave. And there are some things that go in the suitcase in the last 5 minutes before we head out the door. That works for me.

Let’s face it, travel can sometimes be stressful. Even more troublesome is when we let the potential stress of packing and prep keep us from ever traveling or saying yes to adventures.

So, let’s explore options to make your packing work for you, regardless of your packing personality!

Let’s step a few steps back from the packing process to get started: Make sure you own the right clothes, and if you don’t, factor in shopping time. There are times when clients don’t own a swim suit or sturdy hiking shoes or an appropriate rain coat for an upcoming trip. We don’t need to ask why. But we do need to look ahead while planning, and make sure we aren’t buying a swim suit at the airport, or hiking trails in flip flops. And that takes planning. Identify the needs for your trip, check in on what you already own and fill in the gaps at least a few weeks before you leave.

Check the weather for your destination, both current and historical, for when you plan to be there. When you check the weather app today, it may be unseasonably cool / hot, so find out what is typical for your time of year at your destination. AND, still bring a rain coat and umbrella, and / or a few layering pieces for just-in-case.

Have favorites / go-to’s: For example, years ago, when working with a client, she called her typical summer outfit The Uniform. Discussing this further, she pointed out that most of the young moms and fellow nurses that she hung out with typically daily wore a neutral or solid short or skort paired with a colorful v-neck cotton t-shirt. And as we stood in her closet, both of us wearing The Uniform at that moment, I realized she was so right! What are your favorites? What is your Uniform?! Yep, pack that.

Use a packing list, if you’d like, and you can use that as a re-packing list, too, if that would help. When my kids were small, we had a little poster with pictures on it to help them pack. First, all ensembles were rolled up together because it makes life easier and takes up less space. On the poster were pictures of shorts / shirt / underwear / socks per day, with a couple of extras because things get spilled. One nice outfit for church, swim stuff, PJs, one hoodie, shoes. Guess what? This formula still works, even for grownups.

Relatedly, Pack With A Color Scheme: I was looking at a friend’s family photo taken at a Fourth of July family reunion. There were probably 50 or 60 people in the photo. Not everyone matched each other exactly, but everyone had on khaki bottoms and a red, white or blue top. Imagine for yourself what a color scheme would look like, and pack within in that color scheme so everything in your bag matches everything else. My favorite neutral is navy blue, so especially when I pack, I stick with clothes, shoes, etc., that work with navy.

Some final words about clothes – Your Clothes Are Not The Most Interesting Thing About You. I hope. Meaning, pack what you need to make your trip run smoothly, and cut yourself some slack. Similarly, remind yourself that most people you see while you are on vacation, other than the folks you are traveling with, don’t know you and will never see you again. So, to repeat, pack what you need to make your trip run smoothly, and cut yourself some slack.

Here are some of my favorite NOT- CLOTHES packing tips:

Have some things pre-packed / always packed like your toiletry bag, charger bag or cosmetics. A client asked me last week what type of travel bag I use for my cosmetics. I am not a complicated person, so the same small bag that holds my entire collection of cosmetics that lives in my medicine cabinet at home is the bag that goes with me as well, so it’s always ready to go. In addition, I always keep my travel toiletry bag stocked and ready to go. In addition, the charger bag for all of our tech is always packed and in my go-bag for work, so I just need to move it over to our travel bags when we travel.

Take everything out of your wallet and make a copy of both sides of each card, and your passport if you are traveling abroad. Leave the copies and your itinerary with your house-sitter, an adult child, a good friend or in an easy-to-find place at home, in case you have to call home for information.

Assign a home in your bags for your most important items; money, passports, car keys, cell phones and medications (e.g. always the same backpack pocket or the top left inside corner of your suitcase, etc.). You and your travel companions should know where these vital items are at all times.

If you’re traveling by car this summer, keep swimsuits and towels in a separate, ventilated and easy to reach bag, so everyone can get to the pool or lake quickly, and suits and towels have a better chance to dry fully between swims.

I hope these ideas help you out with packing for your next adventures!

Re-Entry After Travel: Bumps in the Road

Let’s call this one Re-Entry 2.0, or “Things to do your first 24 hours home!“

We traveled the last week of May for a family wedding in Baltimore.

In the interest of getting the Midwest grandparents (4) to the East Coast wedding, last Fall we rented a 15 passenger van for the event. This was my husband’s idea and it was brilliant. He and I took turns driving on the 11-ish hour trip to and from Baltimore. Seriously, he is brilliant. He even downloaded to his phone the top 100 songs from 1963 as a road-trip soundtrack. Our passengers were happy.

Here is a picture of the bus, or officially, the “Bus (NotSchoolBus)”. I’m calling it a “Bus (NotSchoolBus)” because that is the category type listed for it on the Safety Compliance Certification Label, a.k.a., the door jamb label.

Here's a shot of me and my co-pilot somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Me and my co-pilot (my son) somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The wedding was beautiful and the reception was great! I am so happy for my niece and my new nephew. They are delightful people who deserve every good thing in life. I love the rest of my family, too. There were good times and great memories made. For the most part, every bit of planning yielded the expected and desired results. Lots of laughs, some Euchre (IFKYK), lots of food, adventures, ice cream, hiking and hanging out and of course the wedding!

AND there were a few snags. I will not go into details, but I will say that everyone is fine and now home. However, after two ambulance rides and ER visits, the Courtyard by Marriott Baltimore BWI may never let our family stay there again. Ever. And I don’t really blame them for that.

There were many uncertainties as we returned and some concern that we may have to adjust our travels or even travel back to Baltimore. And because of all the extra unexpected pieces, being intentional about re-entry was more important than ever. Here are suggestions to help you tackle Re-Entry and also set yourself up to succeed and even to travel again!

A cloudy and choppy day in Annapolis, MD

Unpack the car.

All the way. Yes, all the way. This is our usual practice, but it became necessary and not optional because we had to return the bus to the rental company. Everything had to come out of the bus, all luggage, all rubbish was disposed of, etc.

We also might take the car to the carwash and give it a vacuum, if we had traveled in our own car.

Unpack the bags.

All of them. YES, all of them.

You don’t want to wait and find a neglected apple or granola bar in your hiking backpack a few weeks down the road. Or dirty clothes or shoes, etc. Unpack the bags.

I was reminded of how important this step is when I found my mom’s handicap parking hangtag in one of our bags. Did I mention? My family lives in Michigan, and I live in Chicago. Thankfully I found the hangtag right away and it was out via UPS overnight delivery first thing the next morning.

Multiple loads of laundry were started and completed, and the dressier items like suits and dresses were taken to the cleaners.

Put the bags away.

Yes AWAY. All the bags. You could argue that if I was worried that I might have to travel again for an emergency, perhaps it would make sense to leave a suitcase out. And as an organizer, I will say – unless you know you have a trip planned, it never makes sense to leave a suitcase out. Working with so many clients over the years, very often I will walk into a closet or bedroom or basement storage space or garage, and one of the first things we do to make improvements is to put away the luggage that never made it back to its storage space. Such an obvious solution. Take the few extra minutes and put the bags away.

Toiletries: Re-fill and repack, order extras.

I know I have spoken about this step before, in podcasts last Spring and Summer. It was even more important that I re-filled and re-packed my supplies this week, though, in case I need to travel again soon.

Recharge stuff.

I have a power bank that lives in my travel tech bag, and I used it on our adventure. Not knowing what this week might bring, I made sure to re-charge it. I charged my portable keyboard for my IPad for the same reason. My daily habit, travel or not, is to recharge my phone, AirPods, Apple watch and IPad at night so those are good to go whenever.

Buy groceries.

We needed to restock A LOT of items when we got back from our adventures, and I knew that was a necessity even before we left. I planned a trip to Costco for our first day back and I let Costco do the cooking this week (I’m looking at you, rotisserie chicken, stuffed peppers and backed chicken alfredo). Later that day, I placed the Jewel grocery order for all the stuff I don’t buy at Costco. Within 24 hours of arriving home, the cabinets and fridge were back to normal levels.

So this next step is where the Re-Entry 2.0 comes in.

We were gone for 6 days! And it was awesome! As I described in a text today, “Weekend was mostly amazing, with just a few snags”. I can unpack, repack and re-stock. I can re-charge actual batteries.

But… I also need to re-charge metaphorical batteries.

With the few snags, I actually asked for flexibility and grace via email and texts when people needed something from me this week. I don’t usually feel the need to explain myself or excuse a delay, but this week was not a typical week for lots of reasons.

I restocked groceries, purchased prepared foods and I didn’t expect myself or anyone else to cook. I slept. I was very tired. At writing time, I still am. These last few days, I gave up trying to stay up when my brain and body said ‘enough’. I re-committed to most of my healthy habits: hydrated, returned to exercising, healthier food options, etc.. And, I set myself up to succeed in case I was called away out of town again.

Now… I just need to tackle the rest of the to-do list! But that is another episode for another day!

The Basics: What MUST Be In Your Pocket?

When I started writing this article yesterday, I planned to write it from the going-off-to-college perspective. But, this morning, a 4 year old changed my plan.

Can we start with the basics? 5 things, maybe 6. BASIC. But so very important.

Let’s call them our Pocket Essentials. The items that you consider essential to leaving the house. Your Pocket Essentials are personal and change with age or stage in life. So, my Pocket Essentials for leaving the house – the bare minimum without which I cannot leave – car and house keys on one ring, phone, wallet and sunglasses. Truly, I can get pretty far with just these few things. But without them, I can’t even leave the garage.

From the 4 year old (a client’s daughter), she needed her dollar bill – HERS, not her sister’s, because HERS is smooth and her sister’s is crinkly – and a pink formal long glove. Just one. And very bright pink. And please, don’t question her choice. (She and her siblings were delightful.)

This summer, my son’s pocket essentials for work are his phone, house keys and electronic time card. If he leaves without any of those things, he has to come back for them. When he goes off to college in just a few weeks, he will need to establish A PLACE and JUST ONE PLACE for his college Pocket Essentials – phone, college ID and room key.

The point:

Identify your essentials, whether you are 4, 18 or 50 something.

Establish A PLACE for the essentials to live.

Then, cultivate the habit around making sure your essentials live in that ONE PLACE when you get home so they are ready again for you when you leave.

I have a theory when it comes to organizing and time management: How we manage transition times in our day can make or break our schedule and success.

Transition times are the many instances in our day when we switch from one task to another, one focus to another, one location to another, etc. They include: getting out of bed, leaving for and arriving at school or work, heading to lunch or getting back from lunch, leaving from school or work, arriving home, making dinner or going to bed.

If you live with at least one other human or pet, you also have to factor in their transition times. And when we look at how many instances in a day we are shifting gears, it’s easy to see how many instances there are also to stumble!

So, to Recap:

Establish what your Pocket Essentials are. A short list, not too much to keep track of, but Essential nonetheless.

Then, establish ONE PLACE. By the front or back door? We have a little basket mounted on the wall by the back door where my husband keeps his Pocket Essentials. Mine are all contained in my backpack, also near the exit. Perhaps on your dresser or the kitchen counter? Pick ONE PLACE. Let others in the house know where the place is. Put a nice dish or basket there just for the Pocket Essentials. maybe a charger for your phone, etc.

Finally, establish the habit of keeping your Pocket Essentials in your ONE PLACE while you’re home so it’s waiting for you when it comes time to leave.

My habit is to take off my shoes by the back door and then take everything out of my pockets onto my desk (right next to the back door.) Keys get clipped to my bag, sunglasses go in my bag, phone gets charged on the desk if necessary. Same goes for my family members, dropping their Pocket Essentials by the door or on their dresser. If any of us find those essentials elsewhere in the house, we return them to their ONE PLACE.

And if I happen to walk by my bag and the keys are not clipped to my bag, or my phone is not where I expected it to be, I had better go track it down! Before missing my Pocket Essentials messes up my next Transition time!!

Small Bag of Chargers ALL THE TIME!

In last week’s newsletter, I shared two of my favorite travel tips, my packing cubes and an always-packed toiletry kit.

I was reminded of another favorite travel tip as I packed to travel this past weekend. And I can’t believe I haven’t written about it before now!

I have a small plastic pouch that makes my life better. It lives in my daily go-bag and contains the chargers I might need to charge my stuff.  ALL THE TIME. Plus the cubes to go in the wall or car outlet that hold multiple cords.

For most items, I am pretty tough on the question of duplicates. But this is one instance – tech accessories – when duplicates are OK and even encouraged! It is frustrating and un-safe to be caught without charged tech items.

I travel a lot and even if I didn’t, I’m still on the go ALL THE TIME. This handy little pouch goes almost every where with me. It lives in my go-bag every day for work and gets tossed in my luggage when we travel.


What’s in the bag right now?


We have cords in the cars, too, that STAY IN THE CAR.

Remembering to pack the items is easy. And since I have duplicates, it is also not a crisis if I leave one behind or more likely, share one with a family member that forgot theirs.


The other habit is that I always keep an extra new cord in the tech drawer next to my desk.  Then, if I need to give a cord to my sons (or my mom, like I did a couple of weeks ago) or I need to replace an old cord (like I did over the weekend), I use the back-up one from the drawer and add a new cord to my weekly Office Max order.  So we’re always covered!

Give a little thought this week to what chargers and tech accessories would go into your charger bag to give you peace of mind on the go!

Clutter Hot Spot: Your Tech Accessories

The challenge with this hot spot is that there isn’t always just one spot.

Sometimes the tech pieces

are

all

over

the

place!

The original inspiration for the Clutter Hot Spot series was client interactions in January. And in one week, I had 3 clients who had tech accessories stirred up into every space we were organizing!

IF we ever hope to find them again, we need to assign JUST ONE HOME for our less-often used tech accessories.

In my office, our ONE tech accessory home is a desk drawer. Right next to me as I write this article. It’s not exciting or big or complicated. It holds tech items that we might need again. In preparation for writing this article, I looked in there earlier today. The boxes for my Apple watch and airpods are in there (new-ish). Extra lightning charging cables (we buy these a few at a time), charging cubes, earphone covers, users manuals, the extra cord that came with my new monitor in its labeled bag. Also, mesh bags for corralling tech accessories when we travel. A few items I came across are now obsolete, like my last two Fitbits and their very specialized chargers, and those are all now in the basket in the garage waiting for a E-Waste collection event.

Let’s review the important parts of the story above:

  • One and ONLY ONE home for tech accessories you might need again.
  • The habit of putting tech accessories in that ONE home when we get them, and putting them back in there after we use them!
  • Labeling the accessory and what it belongs with to eliminate future questions.
  • Everyone in the house knowing where the extra tech accessories live.
  • The habit around reviewing the technology at least once in a while, to determine what tech accessories we need to keep and which ones need to move along to E-Waste recycling.
  • Making sure your E-Waste actually gets recycled. Check your local recycling resources for E-Waste recycling near you. If you’re near me, check out my recycling page for resources. (https://peaceofmindpo.com/2019/06/26/organizing-resources-to-reduce-repurpose-and-recycle/)

Look around your home and establish that ONE SPOT for your extra tech accessories, and commit to moving your tech clutter there as you find it!